Favre gave us more than touchdowns, wins

By Sam Lucero
News and Information Manager

	Related articles: this week: • Catholic leaders applaud Brett Favre     'We are so proud of what Deanna and     Brett have accomplished,' says     Mississippi pastor from October 12, 2007 issue: • Deanna Favre says faith guides her life     While football fans count Brett's NFL     records, Deanna counts her blessings

Brett Favre's retirement was a solemn and somber moment for residents of northeastern Wisconsin. In Green Bay, Packers football is part of the fabric of life, and Favre's long, illustrious career was like the golden thread lining the fabric.

Since his arrival in Green Bay in 1992, in a trade with the Atlanta Falcons, Favre surprised football fans with his spunk, durability, humor and incredible talent. He also disappointed us with behavior unbecoming of a Catholic father and husband.

In her book released last fall, "Don't Bet Against Me," Deanna Favre wrote about her out-of-wedlock pregnancy, her eventual marriage to Brett, his drinking and partying, and finally an ultimatum: embrace the life of a Christian or lose the ones you love.

Thankfully (Deanna will tell you it was due to a lot of prayers), Brett chose to be a responsible father and husband. He gave up drinking and partying and turned his life around. It was a conversion that set the stage for Favre's transformation from great athlete to great role model.

Tragedies in the couple's lives - including the sudden deaths of Brett's father and Deanna's brother within a one-year period and Deanna's breast cancer diagnosis - saw them turn to God for guidance and strength.

As the couple's struggles were played out in the media, we saw in them many of the personal struggles that face all of us: disease, addictions, dysfunction, death. We cheered for them to overcome their battles, just as we cheered for Favre the quarterback on Sunday afternoons.

We know that popular culture has a strong influence on society and on our children. For parents and teachers, our challenge is to find stars in popular culture who model Christian values and virtues. By his words and actions, Brett Favre has come to exemplify these qualities.

In St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, we hear about the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity (love). There are also moral virtues - prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude - we develop by performing positive acts.

Listen to what the Catholic Encyclopedia says about these virtues:

• Prudence, the virtue by which one recognizes a moral duty and the means to accomplish it.
  
  
• Justice. It consists of reverence to God; devotion and respect to parents; gratitude or thanksgiving for life's blessings; liberality, the "immoderate affection for wealth;" and affability.
  
  
• Temperance, a virtue that moderates desires and pleasures. It is made up of continence, restraining the will from consenting to vices; humility; meekness and modesty.
  
  
• Fortitude. It implies moral strength and courage. The four qualities that comprise fortitude are patience; perseverance; munificence, which means incurring great expense for doing great work; and magnanimity, "which implies reaching out of the soul to great things."

On and off the football field, Favre practiced these virtues; from sharing credit for wins with his teammates to quietly granting wishes to terminally ill children through Make-A-Wish Foundation.

At a news conference March 6 at Lambeau Field, Favre gave thanks to God for the gifts bestowed on him. "God has blessed me with so many great things. Ability, wonderful family," he said, fighting back tears. "He gave me an opportunity to use my abilities, and I seized that opportunity ... I thank him for that."

In a way, God has blessed us with the opportunity to witness a legendary sports icon who taught us a lot about cherishing life, learning from mistakes and putting faith before fame. Thanks for the memories, Brett, and thanks for your example as a humble follower of Christ.